029 The Mountaintop Eye
Hello!
Here's your weekly Amazing Things & Ideas Newsletter.
— Find one original idea from my side followed by the List.
The Mountaintop Eye
Worry is pointless. Most of our worries are insignificant and about the things that don't even matter. Moreover, worry never solves anything; it doesn't make circumstances any better. All that it does is express emotional frailty.
"Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy." — Leo Buscaglia
I say most things we worry about aren't important because we have a high tendency to judge things the extreme way when we're in the heat of the moment.
Our judgment depends on the view we have of the thing being evaluated. When the view is messed up, you cannot expect the decision to be pretty.
The mountaintop eye is a zoomed out lens to look at the world. To get a fuller picture of what's really happening.
Taking some steps back allows for proper perspective. A little bit of context, a little bit of zooming out; looking at the world below from the mountaintop view, it can give us a better and a more apt reasoning. Ultimately helping in making better decisions.
This illustration from Wait But Why depicts our point well:
When we reach the mountaintop, even the most stressing things earlier seem small and unworthy of our despair.
Looking at the world as it is is a good way to make decisions only if you're looking at the entire world. So, zoom out.
The Amazing Things & Ideas List
A Blog Series on Elon Musk:
The Elon Musk Post Series by Tim Urban (Wait But Why)
— This series explains why Elon Musk is doing what he's doing (making a rocket in order to colonize Mars being one of them) and how he's able to do what he's doing. It explains the difficult industries Musk is a part of in a way as for a child to comprehend.
The last post was probably the best where Tim discusses what makes Elon so special. Spoiler alert: It's the way he thinks.
This is certainly the best series of blog posts I've ever read. It can make the reader a better thinker.
A short book on the obvious secret of a successful businessman:
Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Businessman by Robert Updegraff
— A tale about a salesman who becomes the great Obvious Adams of the biggest advertising agency of New York simply because of his obviousness.
He is the kind of man who solves a problem nobody can solve and when he shows the answer everybody thinks why didn't I think of that before?
We often delve in so much that we miss out on the most obvious and simple thing. This very short book has a simple yet powerful lesson. I'll let you read the book but it's rather obvious.
The book is out of copyright and you can get a free PDF here.
On being a servant to money:
"Money is a great servant but a bad master."
— Francis Bacon
(In this article we discuss more about the quote)
On mental pain being heavier than reality
"The mind gives up before the body."
— Naval Ravikant
All articles on the Blog this week:
Thank you for reading. I hope you found that helpful. Have a great week ahead!
Onward,
Arjun
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